Showing Today: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Todays film in the Harry Potter series is "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

Movie starts at 9AM SLT, Southern Charm out doors movie theater. The screening waits for no one!

Educating Bock

My family and closest friends in SecondLife have a mission in their lives at the moment. They have all joined forces to fill the deep void in me concerning a certain contemporary cultural phenomenon, namely my utter and complete lack of knowledge with the mythos of Harry Potter and his wonderful world.

To bring me up to speed on this we have the last four weekends been having "movie nights" at Southern Charm, showing the Happy Potter movies. The others have seen the films between 6 and 60 times and sometime know all the dialog by heart.

It has been great fun watching the movies in the company of these "potheads" (or is it Potter-heads?). On Saturday at 9 AM SLT we will be seeing the fifth movie in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix".

Here are a few pictures from the time we saw the first movie in the series..

Pool Party, Today Saturday July 25

Tomais and I are pleased to welcome you all to a pool party today between 1-3 PM SLT at our home on Southern Charm.

This event is to inaugurate our new pool and also to give you the opportunity to roam around the sim and take a look at the new mansion and the amazing landscaping by Samuel Fallen of Lytton & Fallen.

Entertainment will be provided by The Smith Boys, DJ Kahvy and host Garrett, assisted by my brothers Dejerrity Mycron and J.J. Goodman.

If you are so inclined, you will have the opportunity to leave a charitable donation to The Ali Forney Center (AFC).
The Smith Boys are graciously donating their time and labours to the AFC.

Your transport to the pool party at Southern Charm (SLurl).

The Ali Forney Center (AFC), based in New York, is the largest LGBT community center helping LGBT homeless youth in the United States. The AFC both manages and develops transitional housing for its clients. The AFC helps approximately 1,000 youths every year, most between sixteen and twenty-four years old. The AFC is named after Ali Forney, a transgender youth who was murdered in New York in 1997

Riding On Poultry at Southern Charm

My wonderful husband Tomais has a huge memory bank, contrary to me. I am certain that an objective assessment would show that he has something like 4 GB of memory at his disposal, while I have a mere 15 kB.

It is therefore not at all surprising that he called an old post to my attention the other day, which I had forgotten all about. The post was this one, Bock in SecondLife: The Laird's Challenge for Vehicle Builders.

Tomais reason for reminding me was that he had acquired some rideable poultry and he asked me if I thought they would fit the description. I was sorry to say, that as the poultry he showed me were more like enormous farm animals than mechanical vehicles I could not consider them worthy of the reward.

Nonetheless, Tomais, my brother JJ and I had some fun riding the cocks over to my brother Dej's place to try and give him a scare. As it turned out - and as the creator warns about in a note card - the rezzing of multiple cocks on the same sim creates a fierce lag, so textures didn't come in sufficiently fast for Dej to be scared.

The only one of us who could get things to rez enough to take decent pictures was JJ, so I must thank him for the mementos. 

Early Notice: Pool Party @ Southern Charm

My husband Tomais and I are pleased to invite you to a pool party at our home on Southern Charm on Saturday July 25, 2015, at 1-3 PM SLT. Please book the time!

This event will be on the ground and not in skybox so you will, besides inaugurating the new pool, have the opportunity to roam around the sim and also take a look at the new mansion and the amazing new landscaping around it by Samuel Fallen, Lytton & Fallen.

Entertainment will be provided by The Smith Boys, i.e. DJ Kahvy & host Garrett.

If you are so inclined you will also be able to give a charitable donation to The Ali Forney Center. Please be generous!

The New Pool & the New Pool Boy

Ever since we decided on Project -15, there has only been one thing we have lacked on Southern Charm and that was a good pool and a hot tub. Well, yesterday my Tomais and I installed a new pool in place of one of the small lakes on the sim.

My dearest brother Dej was the first one to try it out, so I have designated him to be the new pool boy. Privileges must come with some obligations and cleaning the pool and hot tub in SecondLife isn't really that demanding, now is it?

Boo Yah!

After more than three months of trepidation and with some lingering fears about everything that could possibly go wrong today The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment and Outer Territories, UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife and pretender to the throne of Macedonia and dependent territories, finally decided to undertake the task of installing a router.

Contrary to his usual habits when dealing with technical products the laird decided to read the instructions carefully - three times. It is not certain if this change of regular behavior perhaps was the key to the success - but that aside - the process of installing the device and managing the settings went miraculously smoothly.

In honor of his amazing achievements the laird declared the day to be a National Holiday and sent all the princesses and princes home - except a mere 50 of them to serve his personal needs. He also awarded himself the Imperial Star, 1st class with Emerald in honor of his technological brilliance and wizardry.

#Bock3000DaysInSL

There is reason to celebrate today, because it's my 3,000th day in SecondLife!

Bock on May 12, 2007, dancing alone at Bad Boy's Plaza

Who would've thought that fateful Monday more than eight years ago that I would still be here so very many years later?

I came out of inquisitiveness, only intending to check out what all the rave was about and why Sweden was opening it's first virtual embassy here. I spent my first weeks on Arrival Island, or whatever the place was called, trying to get my ugly noob avatar to look better so that I was fit to be seen. I'm gay after all, you have to at least try to look your best at any given moment...

As this was back in the day before Linden Lab provided us with the beautiful starter avatars and I lacked the necessary talent I finally gave up and ventured out into the world.

The first thing I looked for when I decided to venture away from Arrival Island, was anything related to Sweden, the second thing was anything to do with sex, preferably the gay variety. The Swedes ignored me completely, while the gays used me for mutual sexual gratification. Within an hour of leaving Arrival Island I was equipped with 10-15 dicks of various sorts, one of which took me far into the skies when I attached it.

After having used SecondLife for quick satisfaction and pixel-sex for a month or so I actually started talking to people before, during and/or after the quickies. My visits started to get longer and I started to make acquaintances, well more like fuck buddies but anyway...

Someone took pity on me and showed me where and how I could get my avatar to look better and where I could meet people for more than sex. I was introduced to Boots Gay Beach and the Devil Inside club (the "only" gay club to be for a while before it was destroyed by drama). I met good people, kind people and of course my share of assholes. I fell in love with Ars, we moved in together and built a life and family together at Southern Charm. Ars died and I seriously considered dropping out of SL, but then there was Southern Charm. I just couldn't leave it, everything there was a reminder of him and I did not want to lose it.

A little before Ars passed away I had reached out to the Swedish community again, with better luck this time. My countrymen and my SecondLife family were extremely supportive throughout my whole grieving process and involved me with community events, with parties and with people etc, etc. And my saga continues from there with a new love, new friends and new involvements and obligations.

So I came to SecondLife out of curiosity, I returned for the sex and continued for the the people, all the wonderful people I have met here.

All in all, it has been an amazing experience and I don't regret it for a second. I now know I'm going to stay here until Linden Lab pulls the plug in San Francisco, hopefully with a new and improved world waiting for me, my love, my family and my friends.

Happy #Bock3000DaysInSL to you all - and may we have many, many more!

TONIGHT: Z at The Aviary at Southern Charm

The renowned SecondLife singer Z Sorbet (formerly known as ZDiva) is out on her 2015 tour "Miss Me Bitches?!?" during the month of May.

This evening Saturday May 16, 2015, 6 PM SLT, Z will - by special invitation from the laird - be performing at The Aviary at Southern Charm (SLurl). Clear your calendars everyone and don't miss this wonderful event. (Casual attire)

If I manage to stay awake (it's 3 AM my local time) I will be there too!

If you aren't able to make it to this event you have another chance to listen to Z on Saturday, May 23, 6PM SLT @ The Summerlands for a beach party kick off... (Clothed but skimpy works, too!)

Poster by Nikolai Warden

"We Claim Macedonia", Laird Says

"Inconclusive? Inconclusive!?! Have you gone out of your minds? This was not at all the result I was expecting from you! How effing dare you!!! And you call yourselves my loyal and loving citizens?"

All the little princesses and princes and every other denizen of Southern Charm were startled by the outbreak of anger from the mansion, which disturbed the habitual peace and serenity of the sim. They all recognized the voice of the man who was otherwise known to be the most patient and gentle man in SecondLife and none of them had ever heard him this angry before.

Inside the great mansion on the hilltop a small congregation had assembled, consisting of the Prince Consort Tomais, The Royal Gardner Butch Diavolo-Ğrăçємσûηт, renowned geneticist, the twin-princes Angus Maldor-McMillan and Duncan Aycliffe-McMillan, both well known historians, and lastly - but not least - the cause of all the raucous, the laird himself.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife, was now seated again after his outburst. His face was dark red and he had an annoyed frown on his face.

Tomais had moved in behind the laird and was slowly massaging his neck and shoulders, once in a while lovingly stroking the head, to calm the laird down. Tomais was seemingly unperturbed by the commotion but small beads of sweat could be seen on his beautiful forehead. The effects of Tomais labors were soon noticed as the laird's face got more relaxed and his body less tense, although he was still apparently displeased.

The other three in the room, stood scowling and scraping with their feet before their beloved laird, clearly apologetic for causing him such discomfort but still adamant in their conclusions.

A month earlier the laird had appointed the three of them to a secret committee with the purpose "to investigate whether or not the laird is a direct descendant of king Alexander III of Macedonia, a.k.a. Alexander the Great, and therefore can rightfully claim the crown of Macedonia". Although the laird had not said it, they had all three understood that the "or not" was merely inserted for pseudo-objective and decorative reasons. However, too much time had passed since Alexanders death in 323 BC and records of the lineage had not been kept, or had been lost, neither was there any known source from which DNA from the great king could be taken to securely establish a claim. Although there were certain DNA-markers and other fragmentary historical facts to support the lairds wishes the evidence was still too complex and inadequate for them to determine a direct and indisputable link between the two great men.

Suddenly everyone in the room could sense that the laird had calmed down and had reached a conclusion. "No matter", he said with a radiant smile, "this is politics, and politics is not about facts or evidence. Politics is about our desires, our wishes and what we want from the future!"

The laird rose from his seat with a loving and grateful smile to his consort and said, "To hell with Greece and that ridiculous country calling itself F.Y.R.O.M., let it be known that from this day we claim the crown of Macedonia. We will henceforth add to our titles 'pretender to the throne of Macedonia and dependent territories' "

Early Notice: Z Sorbet @ Southern Charm

The renowned SecondLife singer Z Sorbet (formerly known as ZDiva) is out on her 2015 tour "Miss Me Bitches?!?" during the month of May.

On Saturday May 16th, 2015, 6PM SLT, Z will - by special invitation from the laird himself - be performing at The Aviary at Southern Charm. Clear your calendars everyone and don't miss this wonderful event. (Casual attire)

If you aren't able to make it to this event you have another chance to listen to Z on Saturday, May 23rd, 6PM SLT @ The Summerlands for a beach party kick off... (Clothed but skimpy works, too!)

Poster by Nikolai Warden

The Lairds Challenge for Vehicle Builders

Today the Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife, was sitting and talking with the Prince Consort and the Royal Gardener of Southern Charm.

During the conversation the Prince Consort Tomais suddenly screamed out loud with excitement and shouted: "Ooooooooooo I want this!", whereupon he sent us the link to a picture on the Internet, see below.

As some of you may know, the Prince Consort Tomais is a geek, a nerd and a collector of every conceivable vehicle that has ever been created in SecondLife.

I now challenge all vehicle builders in SecondLife to build this contraption, as I want to give it to my lovely hubby.

The builder that sends me the best looking and fully functional vehicle will win a prize of L$25,000.

The jury to decide the contest will consist of the laird himself, his consort Tomais Ashdene and the Royal Gardener Butch Diavolo.

Good luck everyone and may the best person win.

Goodbye Southern Charm!

Cleaned up and cleared out, moving day is here.

I'm saying goodbye to my wonderful Southern Charm, which has been my home for the last seven years, December 2007 - April 1, 2015.

The Boat Shack

We have a new feature at Southern Charm now. It is the beautiful Boat Shack from Redgrave Houses & Homes.

After some consideration Tomais and I decided to set it up in the North East corner of the sim, where the old swimming place was earlier.

Tomais and I have been busy decorating it the last week in a style that could be called "shabby chic". When I said "we have decorated", you would be correct in assuming that I have been standing aside so as not to get in the main interior decorators way uttering approvals at appropriate intervals and putting in a veto or two when needed. My Tomais has excellent taste and a knack for making this look easy, what would have taken me six months, he has single-handedly managed in only a week.

The final result is a very bright and cozy place that I absolutely love to spend time in. Well, except for the drunk teenager sleeping it off on the couch ever since we wandered in during spring-break from God-knows-where.

We have later learned that he is one of a set of triplets with the names Kyle, Kyle and Kyle. Another Kyle's has ended up at the Pine Valley sim while the third Kyle has been discovered at our friend Lucretia's home on mainland. None of them have woken up yet, but they are all breathing and all of us take care to carry them to the water from time to time so they can relieve themselves.

The Revamped Waterfall

Spring arrived early at Southern Charm this year. There are several reasons for this. one is of course the ongoing man-made climate change, another that all the inhabitants living on the sim were sick and tired of winter and a third that we wanted to prepare the sim for the upcoming changes in the big landscaping project known as Project -15.

So in preparation for the new plants to come out so that my landscaper, the brilliant Samuel Fallen of Lytton & Fallen, can continue his work I let my in-house landscapers do some work on the waterfall.

Tomais and Butch, took on the work with great passion and seemed to enjoy the collaboration a lot. The result is absolutely stunning and the new waterfall is a small masterpiece.

Thank You, Phoenix Firestorm Team!

There I was, a couple of days ago, in my wonderful mansion, deleting stuff I had pulled out from Inventory to take a look at, while I was talking with Tomais on Skype. Tomais had gone to La Galleria to pick up some plant or other.

Suddenly I noticed a change in the light where I was sitting. Almost at the same time I realized I was seeing a lot more of the sea outside the sim. It took about ten seconds for my brain to process the information it was receiving before I consciously understood what had happened.

- "Tomais", I shouted, "I just took the house back into Inventory!"
- "You didn't lock it in place, babe?", my lover asked in the way that comes natural for those who know it all.
- "No!", I said sullenly and guilt-ridden.
- "OK, I'm on my way home soon. We will sort it out!", the second-most patient man in the world said calmly.

While I was sitting there, feeling devastated for having yet again pulled a home into Inventory (I think I have done that with almost every home I have lived in) I vaguely remembered the thing saying "Restore to last position" that I see when I click about in my Inventory.

"What about 'Restore to last position´, Tomais?", I asked.
"You could try it, but it doesn't always work...", he answered.

So I looked for the house under my Recent tab, and sure enough there it was in the Trash. I right-clicked it and chose "Restore to last position".

Nothing happened. I took a deep breath and started thinking of all the time consuming work that had gone to waste due to my imprudent action. And hoped that it would work...

"I tried it but nothing's happening!", I informed my hubby.

The seconds passed slowly by and I was waiting for a miracle to occur, but still nothing. Then suddenly after ninety seconds - at least - and just as Tomais arrived home the I saw a big shadow looming over me and the house appeared in place. In the exact same place as it should be and where it had been before. I sighed with great relief and the tension that had been building up left my body. Jubilation and laughter!

"Woot! It's back!"
"Yes, I see and exactly where it should be", Tomais confirmed. He continued, "We are very lucky that you are on the Firestorm viewer, none of the other viewers have that feature!"

I sent the little geniuses at the Firestorm team many grateful thoughts, while I hastened to lock the mansion in place.

---
I would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you so much!" to all the marvelous and wonderful people who are involved in the Phoenix Firestorm Project, for having the foresight to create such a wonderful feature for those of us who are klutzes sometimes. If you ever feel in need of praise or a hug, just come by Southern Charm and I will lavish you with kisses, hugs and compliments.

Close to Home

Ever since I was reached by the news about Avacar Bluestar's passing I have, privately, been hoping that he and his partner Rico had been more prudent than my Ars and I were.

It is after all so extremely easy to take precautions to help your partner in SecondLife in case something unforeseen should happen, even if one is young and in good health. Unfortunately we seem all to be living in a dream that nothing bad will ever happen or that there is no tomorrow and thereby leave our loved ones future in the - less than certain - good will of our inheritors in first life.

As the passing of Avacar hit very close to home for me and have brought all the uneasy memories from almost five years ago to life again, I have not been able to bring myself to contact Rico directly. Even if I am now very happy again and very much in love with my new partner Tomais, the memories of those awful hours, days, weeks, months and years after Ars death are with me still. In particular the period when I was afraid of losing the home we had over  period of more than two years built together on the Southern Charm sim.

Ars had just died and I was grieving deeply for him and less than two weeks afterwards I was struck with the realization that the sim was solely in Ars' name (to avoid EU VAT) and I did not know what to do to get the sim transferred to me. I was afraid to lose it all and with it all the memories of Ars.

I blogged about it - of course - as that was my way of venting and letting off steam. These are the links to my posts as the events unfolded. (If and when you read them, please try to remember I was not completely sane at the time and more self-involved than ever before or after.)

1. Trying to deal with reality - March 26th
2. Trying to deal with reality II (updated) - March 20th
3. Trying to deal with reality III (glimpse of hope) - April 2nd
4. Trying to deal with reality IV - April 13th
5. Trying to deal with reality V (The conclusion) - April 19th

I will never forget the kindness of Belinda Linden and a few others at Linden Lab when they guided me through the process, however I do believe think it would have gotten the happy ending it did had it not been for the kindness and compassion of the Wilson family.
---

I can wholeheartedly sympathize with the agony that Rico is going through at this time. The sims mean nothing to Avacar's first life family - except possibly a hateful reminder of the true nature of their son - while it to Rico is a living memory of the work the two of them did for many years to build a meeting place for the LGBT community in SecondLife.

Please @ebbealtberg, @LindenLab try to find a way to #DotheRightThingforAvacar and transfer the GFW-sims to Rico. pic.twitter.com/WFy7zoi4Qj
— Bock McMillan (@BockMcMillan) January 16, 2015

The Laird Bestows Princehood on Pook

In a solemn ceremony at Southern Charm today The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sim in SecondLife bestowed princely honors upon his son Pook Cypher.

H.R.H. Pook, Le Prince du Nord 

Pook, as you all may know, is a result of genetic experimentation whereby the DNA of the laird, his consort Tomais, Bre Czaroux and Erik Czaroux were mixed in a perfect combination.

Attending the ceremony were most of the princesses and princes of Southern Charm and all four of his fathers. 

At the ceremony the new prince also received the title of H.R.H. Pook, Le Prince du Nord.

Project -15: The Work Begins

On Wednesday my landscaper Samuel Fallen, of Lytton & Fallen, started work on the project. I first noticed that because I started getting offline messages about returned objects. Later on I also received a shopping list.

I was eager to log in to my SecondLife to see what had been done, so a few hours later I did just that. I am not lying when I tell you that you I almost fell out of my chair out of surprise and joy when I saw the master landscaper had been working on.

Samuel had in his very first day done accomplished everything I needed - or could have wished for - to justify my hiring of a professional landscaper.

Just look at the stairs leading up to the main entrance from the duck-pound. I hadn't even dreamed of anything like those stairs, but once I had seen them, they made p-e-r-f-e-c-t sense! I loved the rest of it too.

From now on I will put my worries aside and completely trust Samuel's instincts and professional ability to see what can be achieved and how it should be done.

We haven't yet found a perfect system for how to see to it that Samuel uses my objects so that I can work the HUD in the future. Our present system is that I buy the stuff that Samuel tells me to buy and I follow after him and replace the objects he has put out with mine. This means that Samuel has to do the same work twice, which is unfortunate and time consuming, because he then has to resize and replace my objects where he wants them to be.

#Dej3000Days

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, today issued the following proclamation. 

"It is with great pleasure We today congratulate Dejerrity Mycron, Our brother and Our dearest friend, on his first 3.000 days in SecondLife.

Although Our sweet, crazy and supportive brother first rezzed into SecondLife on October 23rd, 2006, he doesn't look a day older than 2.000 days, We are certain that you will all agree.

It is therefor a great joy for Us to - in honor of Dej - proclaim this day a day of celebration of "Oldies but Goldies", in all of the territories under Our benevolent rule.

Though We cannot command it, We express the hope that all other realms who wish to maintain good relations with Us in the future follow us in this.

Happy #Dej3000Days to you all!"